Co-Director of the WHRI and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology

Profile

Mark Caulfield graduated in Medicine in 1984 from the London Hospital Medical College and trained in Clinical Pharmacology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he developed a research programme in molecular genetics of hypertension and translational clinical research.

In 2007, 2009 and 2011 his research has been independently rated amongst the top ten scientific discoveries in his field. In 2009 he won the Lily Prize of the British Pharmacology Society, in 2015 he won the Genome Valley Award at BioAsia and in 2016 the Bjorn Folkow Award of the European Society of Hypertension. Since 2008 he directs the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Barts. He was appointed Director of William Harvey Research Institute in 2002 and was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008 and was President of the British Hypertension Society (2009-2011).

He is an NHS consultant in the Barts Blood Pressure Clinic within the Barts/William Harvey European Society of Hypertension Centre of Excellence. He raised £25m toward the William Harvey Heart Centre which created a translational clinical research centre and was the academic leader that created the Barts Heart Centre bringing 3 hospitals together in 2015 to create the UK’s largest heart centre (includes UCLH Heart Hospital, the London Chest Hospital and Barts). He served on the 2011 NICE Guideline Group for hypertension and leads the Joint UK Societies’ Working Group and Consensus on Renal Denervation. Since 2014 he has been one of the top 200 most highly cited researchers in the world in genomics according to Thomson Reuters. In 2013 he became an NIHR Senior Investigator.

In 2013 he was appointed Chief Scientist for Genomics England, charged with delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project on whole genome sequencing in rare disease, cancer and infection. As chief scientist Mark leads on all scientific activities for Genomics England. He engages with NHS scientific teams and the general public to promote, explain and enthuse about the 100,000 Genomes Project. He also oversees a coalition of 2500 researchers which comprise the Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnership.

Summary

Cardiovascular GenomicsSince 1996 he has been National Co-ordinator of the MRC British Genetics of Hypertension (BRIGHT) Study on behalf of 5 UK Universities. He led the hypertension study within the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium and has since formed and co-leads the Global BP gen consortium and International Consortium for Blood Pressure Genome-wide Studies which combined the talents of 354 scientists from 224 Institutions from 24 Countries. This work has now identified over 212 genes for blood pressure and 5 genes influencing statin response.

Cardiovascular Clinical TrialsHe was on the Steering Group of the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcome Trial recruiting 1157 hypertensives. This trial has changed international guidance on lipid lowering and blood pressure treatment. From this Barts and The London now have a major clinical trials programme and a partnership with Quintiles Transnational where we coordinate and enhance clinical research across UCLP Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.

Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (Caulfield co-PI). Genome-wide association study of 14,000 cases of seven common diseases and 3,000 shared controls. Nature 2007; 447:661-678. Voted Best Scientific Research Paper in the World in 2007 (by both Nature and Science).